Carvalhal stays silent on Bannan red card

CARLOS CARVALHAL elected to keep his counsel regarding the 76th-minute dismissal of Barry Bannan which was the only black mark on an uplifting afternoon for

Sheffield Wednesday, who recorded an excellent 3-0 victory at Nottingham Forest.

The Owls put their recent five-match winless streak behind them in eye-catching fashion and were full value for their success at the City Ground, thanks to a first goal for the club from Aiden McGeady on the half-hour mark and second-half strikes from Gary Hooper and substitute Marco Matias as the Hillsborough outfit completed a double over a below-par Forest side.

The win consolidated sixth spot in the Championship table for the Owls, who are now just two points behind fifth-placed Derby County, pegged back in a dramatic late 3-3 draw at Rotherham.

A straight red card for Barry Bannan following a foul on his ex-Aston Villa team-mate Eric Lichaj provided the one sour point on the day as an Owls player received his marching orders for the third occasion in four games.

On the red card, head coach Carvalhal, who had a chat with referee Graham Scott and his officials on the pitch after the final whistle, said: “Let’s see on the image. I can’t say nothing. After we will see.

“You know I don’t talk about the referees on the back of the four games. In the four games before, the decisions were very poor. But you know that usually in the games, I respect the decisions.

“We can’t protest because my players are educated not to.”

On the well-deserved victory, he added: “I think we had a very good game and played very serious with very good quality.

“I think we deserved the win because we played very good football. It is not just the win, but the way that we win which I think is important.

“Our fans enjoyed the way that we played and of course we are happy. After we went to ten men, we scored one goal and all the players were compact and we didn’t concede any goal. So we are happy.

“We didn’t win just because we defended well and played counter-attack. We won because we played good football and we deserved what we achieved.

“After the not easy situations in the past games, we were back against Brighton and today is another step after what we did in the Brighton game.”